Why can't audiophiles say that a power opamp sounds good because it is a well designed IC? Why must it be tarted up with esoteric resistors and caps, inverting configurations, and separate power humpties before people will say they sound good? The reason that our power opamp audio amplifiers sound good is because of years of science and engineering, and by good design and implementation by teams of engineers National, TI, and others. We're all just craftsmen putting them in various boxes. The sound was there already.

There are some really good and creative craftsmen that have built these amps judging from personal web pages and the gallery at Nuuk's site. Why can't you just be proud of that aspect of your work and leave it there?

You could bang on one of these things (gently) with a hammer directly on the case of the amp chip, and not even see a scope trace budge. How could oak v. maple possibly make a difference?

Why can't audiophiles be honest and just say that wood cases, machined metal parts, and ....tubes look cool and are fun to show their friends. Why do they always have to invoke some sort of miraculous sonic benefit?

You can't hear a difference between a wood and maple case or an amp suspended by a single madagascarian silk fiber in a vacuum. You just can't. 2 inches of hookup wire in a case or 2 feet of hookup wire in a power umbililical can't, and do not, have a "sonic signature". They just don't.

There was a previous thread where some people new to the hobby were wondering about whether or not things like different types of wood in cases would make a difference. My advice is to get a basic electronics book like "The Art of Electronics" by Horowitz and Hill. If you run across something in the audiophile world that's not mentioned in there, it almost certainly B.S. Audio electronics are no different than any other type of electronics.

The problem of power amplification for the home is sussed. You can get a chip and with a PS and a few resistors and caps, you can have as good of a sound from your amp up to 100W as anybody. Yes, even your friend with the Krell, and especially your friend with the SET amp

I enjoy electronics because I like the challenges in the designing, building and debugging processes. After the amp is fully debugged and is working flawless, I usually start to disassemble it. There is no need for me to have more amps than I need and economically it is more expensive for me to build one than to buy one off the shelf.

I for one don't believe in the resistor sound, or insulation pad sound, etc. and it is silly in my book to think one can hear a pre-amp power supply being "positively grey and dynamically challenged", or that 30mm feedback length makes a sonic difference, or metal feet sound better than rubber feet, etc., unless they are proven to do so.

A lot of the times, it is human psychi (?) that is hearing all the differences. Those amps are our babies, and some of us expected to hear differences for all the time, money, sweat and love, and they got fooled by their minds.

Or they looked forward to being fooled by their minds. I have no problem with people believing that they hear the difference, but to argue for it on psudo science is another story.

While I belong in the land of cynics rather than the land of believers, please let me state my case:

I am a professonal electronics engineers specialising in broadcast audio and video. As such I have heard a lot.

I lived with the same HIfi...mid range, just satisfying stuff for 12 years.
After my kids grew up, I decided to change it. The replacement sounded terrible. So I tried a few more. All sounded different, even the expensive stuff. This was an immence culture shock to someone who thought that "any idiot could design a reasonable amp".
After a lot of experimentation, I found my way back to valves (tubes).
It's a vast field out there, but there are visible markers.

Don't imagine you can solve it all by logic and analysis. If you do, then one day you'll be caught out like I was.....

Originally posted by Gerontius
Why can't audiophiles be honest and just say that wood cases, machined metal parts, and ....tubes look cool and are fun to show their friends. Why do they always have to invoke some sort of miraculous sonic benefit?

You can't hear a difference between a wood and maple case or an amp suspended by a single madagascarian silk fiber in a vacuum. You just can't. 2 inches of hookup wire in a case or 2 feet of hookup wire in a power umbililical can't, and do not, have a "sonic signature". They just don't.

And what makes you so certain about it?

__________________www.audiosector.com
“Do something really well. See how much time it takes. It might be a product, a work of art, who knows? Then give it away cheaply, just because you feel that it should not cost so much, even if it took a lot of time and expensive materials to make it.” - JC

I think people just take part of their experience and apply it in places where it may not help. It's harmless, no reason to get worked up over it.

Take microphonics, for example. SMD ceramic chip capacitors are highly microphonic. So if one gets used to thinking of ones components as microphonic, one might apply that habit to a project where it makes no sense. But again, it doesn't hurt.

If someone thinks that mounting his amp on a 1000 year-old rare Japanese tree wood makes it sound better and is willing to pay $10000 for it, let him. Its good for the economy (the seller's at least). Whatever makes people happy I say.

You're taking things too seriously, really. I just read this stuff, discard what I know from education is BS and try to learn from those who actualy know what they're doing. But I must tell ya, many times the best (fun) reading comes from the BS pile